Credit Repair Scams on the Rise

A recent article by Kenneth Harney of the Washington Post pointed out an observation I’ve had as well, credit repair scams are on the rise.

These scams make believe believe that for a fee, bankruptcies, judgments, law suits, collection activity, or other derogatory items can be removed from a consumer credit report. That is simply not true.

One such company that is alleged to have made such claims is Clean Credit Report Services Inc. of North Miami, Florida.

In national radio advertisements, plus Internet and TV pitches, Clean Credit said it could make records of “late payments, collection accounts, charge-offs, repossessions and bankruptcies” simply disappear from credit files, according to the FTC’s complaint.

The firm used testimonials from people identified as clients to help convince other potential customers that the claims were for real. The FTC cited a testimonial from one woman who said that she needed a minimum 600 credit score to obtain a loan but had only a 480 when she contacted Clean Credit. – Source

Here is an example of an advertisement for credit repair services.

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After watching the advertisement you can see how people that have lived through a bad financial event might feel compelled to pay a credit repair service money to clean up their credit report. But there are two big problems with that strategy.

Let’s say someone used some trickery to get a negative item removed from a credit report. If they then went and used that credit report to apply for credit they have committed credit fraud.

Just because an item has been removed from a credit report with some trick, it will most likely appear again in the future the next time the creditor dumps their database to the credit bureaus.

Save your money. Avoid credit repair.

If you want to increase your credit the best approach is to resolve any open accounts that have not been paid and then to focus on making sure your credit reports list accurate information. That inform may contain negative information but it should list accounts you actually had. My opinion is that a consolidated credit report is the fastest and easiest way to compare all three credit bureaus reports.

Once you do that and notify the credit bureaus of information that is not true then rebuilding your credit is an easy process you can do yourself. Use this guide as example of how to do that.